So many broken promises . . .

And like an abused wife, the voters came back for more.

Let’s personalize our Obama problem

If you had a friend/acquaintance who was upside down on his mortgage, had credit card debt of about $30,000, had borrowed not only from his parents and his children, but his shyster Uncle who was known to be a knee-capper, had not yet paid off his college loans and it was time for his kids to enroll, who nickel and dimed his church, who was known to cut corners at work, invested in Ponzi schemes and lied a lot, would you tell him it was a good idea to spend even more to cover his debts? Of course not. But that's what about 50% of the voters did in November in selecting a known spend thrift as their leader. And even now they swoon when he chatters on about everything except how to get out of the mess he made.

“During Barack Obama’s first term as president of the United States, the debt of the federal government increased by $5.8 trillion, which exceeds the combined debt accumulated under all presidents from George Washington through Bill Clinton.

The new federal debt accumulated in Obama's first term equaled approximately $50,521 for each of household in the country.”

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/first-term-obama-increased-debt-50521-household-more-first-42-presidents-53-terms

                             

Watching what New Yorkers drink

What does NYC chief nanny Mayor Bloomberg say about fruit/veggie drinks? A 12-ounce can of cola has 33 grams of sugar and about 136 calories. He limits the sale to 16 ounces (this will cost the consumer and the environment more). I have a Bolthouse Farms Green Goodness drink, 15.2 ounces, 60 grams of sugar, 280 calories. It has apple, pineapple, mango, banana, kiwi, (all in concentrate or puree) green tea, spinach, broccoli, barley grass, wheat grass, Jerusalem artichoke, and some other stuff. However, no sugar has been added--it's a natural ingredient in fruits and vegetables, especially in corn which is high in fructose a main ingredient in a lot of pop and fruit mix drinks. Now, my green drink (it's really tasty) is a lot more nutritious than pop with vitamins C, A, B, zinc and manganese, but I don't think Mr. Nanny is even looking at anything except sugar per ounce.

Blacks voted in Revolutionary times

Black history month. . .

Blacks voted long before the 1965 Voting Rights Act (which Democrats fought). The infamous 1856 Dred Scott decision in which a Democratic-controlled US Supreme Court observed that blacks “had no rights which a white man was bound to respect; and that the Negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit.” Non-Democrat Justice Benjamin R. Curtis, one of only two on the Court who dissented in that opinion, provided a lengthy documentary history to show that many blacks in America had often exercised the rights of citizens – that many at the time of the American Revolution “possessed the franchise of [voters] on equal terms with other citizens.”

State constitutions protecting voting rights for blacks included those of Delaware (1776), Maryland (1776), New Hampshire (1784), and New York (1777). Pennsylvania also extended such rights in her 1776 constitution, as did Massachusetts in her 1780 constitution. 

As a result of these provisions, early American towns such as Baltimore had more blacks than whites voting in elections; and when the proposed US Constitution was placed before citizens in 1787 and 1788, it was ratified by both black and white voters in a number of States. (All references are to free blacks, not slaves.)

For citations and information about how Democrats fought against rights for blacks even into the 1960s, see http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1072053/posts

Racist, American style, born in Texas

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2006/apr/16/2006041

http://www.stopliberallies.com/gringo-killer-jose-angel-gutierrez-professor-at-the-univ-of-texas-at-arlington-2480.html6-122222-1672r/

A haunted painting?

When you live with an artist (or two if you count me), you have a lot of art in the closets (we also buy it), so we're always rearranging. Last week we did a major shift. I've been hearing really creepy noises in the living room in the early a.m. I’ve decided it is the painting of the big house near Delaware, Ohio,  It is so large it has acrylic instead of glass in the frame to reduce the weight. When the heat comes on it makes expanding noises, then contracts.

He was an architect before he was a painter, so as architects will do, he remodeled it a bit for the painting--took off an addition that detracted from the original bones of the house. I think he also gave it a coat of paint. It had been refurbished about 20 years ago, but had fallen a bit in recent years. So if you drive by this house, it may not look quite like this.

The environmental regulations have become so restrictive that it is very difficult to save homes like these—lead paint, sometimes buried fuel oil tanks, etc.  Plus the heating costs with 12’ ceilings is often prohibitive. 

Tax in the Hat

The President proposed 29 new programs in the SOTU

And he’s running around campaigning for gun control.  Well, I might be trying to deflect the damage too because:

“On Jan. 20, 2009, when Obama was first inaugurated, the total debt of the federal government was $10,626,877,048,913.08, according to the U.S. Treasury. As of the close of business on Jan. 17, the last day reported by the Treasury before Obama’s second inauguration, the total debt of the federal government was $16,432,631,489,854.70.

Thus, from Obama’s first inauguration to his second, the federal government’s debt grew by $5,805,754,440,941.62.

Given that the Census Bureau currently estimates that there are 114,916,000 households in the United States, the $5,805,754,440,941.62 debt increase under Obama equals about $50,521 per household.”

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/first-term-obama-increased-debt-50521-household-more-first-42-presidents-53-terms

Suggestions for Oscars 2014

“First, environmentalists that you are, arrive next year in Chevy Volts instead of gas-guzzling limos. Secondly, since you love to preach about gun control, ban all security and designate the surrounding area a gun-free zone. If it’s good enough for schools it’s good enough for you. Finally, since you’ll want to help the President you love so much, insist upon no more tax breaks for any of your productions. Do all this and you can proudly call yourselves Obama loving, Hollywood liberals!”  Paula Priesse

Les Paul and Mary Ford, Monday Memories

           

Metal Recommendations is giving away Gibson Les Paul Black Beauty 1957 2 PU VOS on Facebook.

I don't need a Les Paul Black Beauty, but can think of others who might. I remember listening to Les Paul and Mary Ford in the 1950s on 78 records in the family "music room" in our house at 4 South Hannah. In the back of the house overlooking the pine trees, the music room held the family piano, Carol’s saxophone, my trombone, Mom’s cello and the children’s record player.  In the evening the room doubled as my dad's office.  It also had a closet with built in shelves where books were stored.  Our piano was an upright, purchased used when we lived in Forreston, with a black varnish on it.  My mother refinished it to a lovely light walnut, I think.    Carol’s sax was originally my Uncle Clare’s as I recall, but was probably traded in later for one with better pads. One of my niece’s now has the cello, although a great-grandchild plays cello.  My trombone was sold in the 1960s before we moved to Columbus, although I do have one of much lower quality now.

           

But back to guitars.  We do have a guitar in our house.  My husband got one for Christmas 2011, and is teaching himself not only guitar, but how to read music.  He says he want to be better before he takes lessons.

            

Haitian Creole—a brief history

“Kreyòl, or Haitian Creole, is the major language of Haiti, spoken by nearly all the 10,000,000 people who live there, plus those in the widespread Haitian diaspora. Its vocabulary (but not the grammar) is primarily based on 18th-century French, with admixtures from African languages, English, and others. Although it is now an official language of Haiti, it has historically had second-class status to French, which was spoken only by the elite and educated, Kreyol being spoken by everyone else. Likely because its use was (and still is) strongly related to social class, the first texts in Kreyol did not appear until the 1920's; orthography (spelling) was finally standardized in 1979.”

The above is from the Book of Common Prayer (Episcopal)

My husband doesn’t speak Creole, French, or Spanish, but by the time his students graduate from Institution Univers located in Ouanaminthe, Haiti, they know those plus English.  Usually a senior is appointment to translate for him, although most of the students can understand, if not speak, English.

NASA Johnson Style (parody)

Brian Schwing, a 22-year-old Ohio State University intern from Cincinnati at NASA in Houston, directed NASA Johnson Style, which shows his fellow interns and astronauts at Johnson Space Center dancing like Gangnam Style singer Psy and singing altered lyrics about the space agency, written by Schwing.  Writing it was the easy part; it took 200 hours to produce and edit down 15 yours of footage to 4 minutes.

Ohio keeps some adults forever children

Ohio House Bill 61 introduced by Antonio and Pelanda will permit people who were adopted between the years of 1964 and 1996 to access their original birth certificates once they reach the age of 18. Adoptees who were born before 1964 and after 1996 have nearly unfettered access to their original birth records, while it is nearly impossible for adults adopted between these years to obtain the same documents.

I have no idea why this law was ever passed, but it was not for the good of the person whose birth information was fictionalized and falsified, signed and notarized. I suspect someone in the legislature or with great influence in the state of Ohio in the 1960s preferred not to be found out. It's the only thing that sounds logical in this completely un-American law.

If liberalism worked, Detroit would be fabulous

What if good people do bad things?

Abby Johnson writes:

You know, I'm a pretty good person. And I do lots of nice things. We give to dozens of prolife charities. We are active in our church. We volunteer for many different organizations. So what if I decided to go on a killing spree and murder 10 people? I mean, I do good things...so certainly I can get a pass!!

No? Well then, why do we give a pass to Planned Parenthood? Yes, they may do some good things...but they kill over 300,000 people a year.

Seems like a no-brainer to me.

Now why would he lie?

http://www.factcheck.org/2012/10/obamas-inflated-jobs-claim/

• Viewers would need to pay close attention to the on-screen graphic to know that the ad refers only to employment gains starting in March 2010, omitting the 4.3 million jobs that were lost in the first year of Obama’s term.
• And there’s no way a viewer would know that the total counts only private-sector jobs, omitting continuing losses in government employment.

According to the most recent employment figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economy has eked out a net gain of 325,000 jobs since January 2009, when Obama took office. And that’s giving credit for roughly 386,000 jobs that the BLS has announced, on a preliminary basis, that it will be adding to this year’s employment totals next year, as a result of its routine annual “benchmarking” analysis.

She will grow up to fight injustice, unless. . .

Where are the sad faces, outrage and body count for Obama’s wars?

At it again: our peace prize prez. "President Obama announced Friday that about 100 U.S. troops have been deployed to the West African country of Niger, where defense officials said they are setting up a drone base to spy on al-Qaeda fighters in the Sahara." [Washington Post]

In 2011 he sent troops to Uganda. In 2012, Mali. Somalia. Tunisia. Pakistan. Then with the Benghazi bumble we found out he was gun running tons of weapons to Syrian rebels. He sent back up troops to Jordan and Turkey for the Syrian Civil War.  Who has approved this? Certainly not Congress.

Remember how outraged Democrats were when Bush got Congressional approval for a war, named that or not, because of WMD intel from the Clinton years?

Remember how the press was right on top of every coffin or body bag that came home during the Bush years? Obama lost 2,000 American military in Afghanistan in 2.5 years; Bush 2,000 in 6 years. Where are the sad faces and sighs from the MSM reporters and Sunday panels?

Gallant, Goofus, and Highlights

              

My cousin Jodie Strickland of NC posted this “remember when” photo on Facebook today.  If you're from Columbus, you probably know it was published here--I think it was on Rt. 33 near 5th Ave. Garry C. Myers III, the CEO of Highlights, was the child model for Gallant of the cartoon panel, Gallant and Goofus of Highlights. His grandparents Garry Cleveland Myers and Caroline Clark Myers founded Highlights in 1946. He died January 26, 2005. The parents of young "Gallant" were killed in a plane crash and he and his siblings were raised by an aunt and uncle in Texas. He joined the board of Highlights when he was 24, went to work there when he got out of the Army and worked up through the ranks and became CEO in 1981. Gallant and Goofus appeared also in many sermons. The only reason I know any of that is because I wrote a blog about him in 2005.

WHY DO DOGS LIVE LESS THAN HUMANS? ANSWER OF A 6 YEAR OLD

Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolfhound named Belker. The dog’s owners, Ron, his wife Lisa, and their little boy Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle.

I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family we couldn’t do anything for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.

As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.

The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker ‘s family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away.
The little boy seemed to accept Belker’s transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker’s Death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives.

Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, ”I know why.”
Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I’d never heard a more comforting explanation. It has changed the way I try and live.

He said,”People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life — like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?” The Six-year-old continued, ”Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don’t have to stay as long.”

Live simply.
Love generously.
Care deeply.
Speak kindly.

Remember, if a dog was the teacher you would learn things like:
When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.
Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure Ecstasy.
Take naps.
Stretch before rising.
Run, romp, and play daily.
Thrive on attention and let people touch you.
Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass.
On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.
When you’re happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.
Be loyal.
Never pretend to be something you’re not.
If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by, and nuzzle them gently.
ENJOY EVERY MOMENT OF EVERY DAY!

Although I’m not sure this is the original source, it can be found here.